Re: Password safe web application with postgre - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Steve Manes
Subject Re: Password safe web application with postgre
Date
Msg-id 482C6B22.7030404@magpie.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Password safe web application with postgre  (Bohdan Linda <bohdan.linda@seznam.cz>)
List pgsql-general
Bohdan Linda wrote:
> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 05:40:49PM +0200, Steve Manes wrote:
>> I keep the user's login credentials in a TripleDES-encrypted,
>> non-persistent cookie, separate from session data.
>
> This is the approach I am/will be heading to. Having the cookie with login
> and password encrypted on user side, HTTPS connection, and what was said
> in previous emails about not storing credentials in cookies any ideas of
> weak sides?  Moreover if parts of decryption keys will be unique to the
> sessions and stored in session on a server?

No security is 100% and neither is my solution.  Given enough time,
interest and computer time it could be hacked.

But we used similar tamper-proof credentials security on three large,
hacker-infested community web sites which together logged up to .75
billion page views/month.  Everything else under the sun got hacked but
this encrypted cookie never was (we had watchdogs sniffing for mangled
cred cookies).  It was just too much work.


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